Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
After breakfast they headed to the railway station of Airolo (1141m a.s.l.), which is the highest railway station of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) (BAHNHOF AIROLO). There they boarded the "Treno Gottardo" to Faido. In Faido they changed to a bus and got off at Rodi "Dazio Grande".
The "Dazio Grande" is a building from the middle of the 16th century. It served as customs house for goods, transit traffic, hoarse-changing station, guesthouse, hostel and warehouse until 1803, the year when the Ticino became part of the Swiss Confederation. It remained in operation, until the Gotthard railway line was inaugurated in 1882. Nowadays, it is still open for the public as a museum and provides a rustic restaurant and overnight accommodation (DAZIO GRANDE).
From there they started their hiking, which took them along the "Via Gottardo Süd", passing by the two most impressive gorges ("Piottino" and "Biaschina"), which are shaping the landscape of the upper Ticino, and ending by the village Giornico.
Day 11: Travel by train & bus to Rodi & walk to Faido. Travel by train to Lavorgo & walk to Giornico. Travel by bus & train to Bellinzona (MAPS 3 & 4).
Day 8: Walk to Hurden & back to the Rapperswil "Seebad" lido. Travel by train to Rüti.
Hurden (Figure 32) is a prominent promontory out of moraine material, which has been produced by the "Linth" glacier during the Würmian ice age. Together with the artificially raised dam by Rapperswil, Hurden splits up the fifth largest lake of Switzerland "Lake of Zurich", in two parts: The "Zurich-Obersee" lake and the lower "Zürichsee" lake (HURDEN).
To reach Hurden the group had to cross a wooden bridge, on their way they passed the technical college of Rapperswil. Markus was an
ex student there and graduated as a landscape architect. He would have loved to show them around the Campus but unfortunately the time did not permit.
Figure 32: View from the "Kapuzinerkloster" monastery to the prominent promontory "Hurden"
The "Holzbrücke" (Figure 33) is a wooden pedestrian bridge between the city of Rapperswil and the village of Hurden. This route has already been for centuries an important crossing for pilgrims "Jakobspilger" on their way to Santiago de Compostela. In April 2001 a new wooden bridge replaced the old one of the 19th century. The "Holzbrücke", which has a total length of 841m belongs to the longest wooden bridges in Switzerland (HURDEN). It crosses over the nature reserve called "Frauenwinkel", which is with 350ha the largest and most precious nature reserve found at the lake of Zurich. It provides a rich biodiversity and is an important habitat for several rare plant species and breeding place for birds (FRAUENWINKEL).
Figure 33: Hiking path from Rapperswil to Hurden on the wooden pedestrian bridge "Holzbrücke"
After half an hour they reached Hurden and visited the little chapel, those who had a special wish lit a candle. Behind the chapel they found a place on the grass by the lake for their lunch picnic. The "Zürich-Obersee" lake is home to a rich diversity of water birds, mallard duck "Stockente", great creasted grebe "Haubentaucher", fulica atra "Blässhuhn", aythya ferina "Tafelente", swans "Schwäne" etc. (RAPPERSWIL-JONA SEEUFER). Their picnic meal attracted the attention of a mallard duck family, who was hoping to share their picnic and they were not disappointed. As soon as the lunch break was over, they returned back to Rapperswil and headed to the "Seebad" lido (Figure 34), which is located in a quiet bay just below the "Klosterkirche" church.
Figure 34: "Seebad" lido in Rapperswil with the "Bachtel" mountain in the background
The place has good swimming facilities and the access is free to the public. After a relaxing couple of hours there, they left to their hotel and got ready for the evening.
At 16:44 the S15 left the station direction to Rüti. When it reached destination Matthias, who was invited by Daniela, was already there waiting for them. So the group headed by Daniela, started their walk towards her parents place.
Daniela's parents lived in a timber-framed house. The old style place was kept in good condition; it was surrounded by a lovely garden which impressed everybody by its natural beauty. In the shade of the two old cherry trees, a huge wooden table was already set up for the party. In the center of the garden was a large biotope, an ideal habitat for a lot of beautiful water lilies. Daniela's father, Gotthard, a passionate barbeque expert who was originally from Canton Glarus, had already started a fire for the barbeque and her mother, Heidi, an efficient and practical woman who was originally from Canton Appenzell, had prepared lots of salads and all what was needed to satisfy their appétit. They felt very much at home by Daniela's parents, especially Nicolas and Bettina. As Nicolas was from a village close to Linthal in Canton Glarus and Bettina from Urnäsch in Canton Appenzell, they had a lot to talk about. The meal was delicious and everybody was in good spirit. Unfortunately time flew so quickly and when it was time to leave they were very sorry that it was their last evening together. They took leave from their hosts and headed to the train station.
Matthias had to go to Niederweningen so he took leave from the others, and had a longer conversation with Daniela before he left. As it was getting rather late, the short train trip was welcomed by all. It had been a great week they all agreed and hoped it will be repeated again.